Hypnotherapy

To understand what hypnotherapy is, you need to first dismiss and set aside all the stereotypes that exist. Hypnosis for therapy purposed is very different from the stuff we see in TV show and stage shows. There are no embarrassing activities like clucking like a chicken and crawling around on all fours. The hypnotherapist cannot make you do anything that goes against your core beliefs and similarly, you don’t divulge any secrets to the therapist, you still have complete control over what you choose to share and what you don’t. You can’t be left in a state of hypnosis, if you placed in a trance and left alone, you will either wake up naturally or go to sleep and when you are rested out you will wake up.

What is hypnosis?

Hypnosis is actually a very natural process that we all experience every day. For instance, have you ever driven from work to home or a route you know well and you reach your destination and you can’t really remember much of the journey? That is natural hypnosis. Maybe you start reading a book and you get so drawn into the story that when you look up hours have passed? Yes, you guessed it, hypnosis.

No one can reveal to you aught but that which lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge

~Kahlil Gibran~

How does therapy under hypnosis work?

Therapy under hypnosis allows the therapist and the client to bypass the critical conscious mind and connect directly with the subconscious mind. The reason that makes this so incredible and personalized is that every person’s subconscious mind holds all the answers to what is needed to heal that person.

Our subconscious minds are active and recording everything from when we are in our mother’s wombs and never stops till the day we die. It even records while we are asleep. The conscious mind on the other hand only starts its function after we are born and has to learn as it time goes by from experiences. It goes through various levels of activeness daily. When we are asleep or a state of deep relaxation, the conscious mind “switches off” to rest and when we are alert and awake, it is at its peak functioning mode. The other huge difference between the conscious and subconscious mind is that the subconscious takes everything in and stores it as being real and true, where our conscious mind is that analytical part of our mind, allowing us to differentiate between fact and fiction, good and bad, acceptable and unacceptable, basically the conscious mind is the critical filter, it filters what goes into the subconscious mind. The human mind can be compared to a computer in a way, where the subconscious mind is a massive hard drive that never runs out of storage space and the conscious mind is like RAM, only holding that when it needs for processing at that point in time. The rest or down times that it requires is for all information to be transferred to the subconscious mind.

For all people when we are very young and the conscious mind doesn’t have the life experience to filter how the subconscious mind records life’s events, everything gets recorded through the limited filters that exist. The first filters that a child’s conscious mind applies to everything is based on survival, which relates directly to remaining with the parents for nourishment and care. Unfortunately, when certain events happen during these early years, the conscious mind often misinterprets these events and distorts the learning from those events. We find that a similar thing happens when we experience severe trauma in life, even as adults. This faulty processing of events often has a negative effect on how we approach other events in life, leaving us is a state of dis-ease. It is important to remember that this happens to everyone at some point in their lives, it does not mean that there is anything wrong with the individual.

During a hypnotherapy session, there are various ways of connecting with the subconscious mind to reprocess those memories with new “grown-up” wisdom and knowledge. However because this is such a sensitive process, it is very important to choose a hypnotherapist that you are comfortable with and can remain client-centred.

What is client-centred?

Essentially it is when the therapist provides you with just a guide for you to find your own healing at your own time and in terms that resonate with you. Your subconscious mind always knows what you need and when the therapist is just meant to guide you in finding those answers.

On the point of being comfortable with the therapist, this is of vital importance and your conscious mind will not “let go” and give the therapist access to the subconscious mind if there isn’t complete trust that you are safe. Remember that the conscious mind is there to protect first and foremost, it is part of the primal human instinct.

What can hypnotherapy help you with

Hypnotherapy can be useful in so many spheres of a person’s life, the list is virtually endless. The popular aspects where it has been proven helpful countless times is with compulsive behaviours and removing them, like smoking.
Another common area that can successfully be treated with hypnotherapy is phobias. All phobias are started by and reinforced by events in our lives (not always related to the phobia itself).

There are also various physical ailments that are actually driven by something in our subconscious mind that is creating the physical discomfort, these as well can successfully be removed through hypnosis.

How hypnotherapy differs from other therapy

The list is quite extensive as to conditions where hypnotherapy has successfully changed the client’s quality of life.
Hypnotherapy differs from conventional physiological therapy in a few ways. The two main aspects being that in conventional therapy you are required to share the details of events in your life in order to find a resolution and this process can keep in you in therapy for months or years. Whereas with hypnotherapy you are not required to share details of any events that have taken place and based on the fact that your subconscious mind carries all the answers to what is required to heal you, you will rarely need more than 5 or 6 sessions for any 1 presenting problem. The therapist is trained to guide you in finding the solutions that tailor-made for you because it is your mind that presents the solution during the sessions.

Please do feel free to contact me regarding how through hypnotherapy I can be of assistance.